Some great vintage Santa Fe footage in color

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
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I was browsing on YouTube and stumbled across some excellent vintage films on the Santa Fe dating from the early to late 1950s. Being a Santa Fe modeler, the footage is an excellent resource to me, and all but the last one are in color. So if you haven’t found these already, I thought I’d point them out.

First Video Link (Crookton Cutoff)

The first video link is all about the famous Crookton Cutoff construction project. The Crookton Cutoff is a major line relocation in Northern Arizona completed in 1960. The first part of the film gives a general overview of the Santa Fe at that time, and then goes into detail of the Crookton line relocation project. The date given by the video poster is 1959, but since the line is completed at the end of the film it must be post 1959.

Crookton Cutoff Video

Second Video (Safe handling of freight)

The second video is about safe handling of freight on the Santa Fe. It must have been shown to Santa Fe employees. The film is a little hokey, but the color footage of the various freight cars, switchers, etc…is excellent. And there is a not too subtle hint that UP is a clear competitor. I’m guessing this dates to the mid 1950s.

Safe freight handling Video

Third Video (Super Chief)

The third is more well know, at lest to me since it was available via Pentrex many years ago. It is an advertisement of sorts all about the Super Chief. This deals with the Super Chief of 1951 with the then new Pleasure dome and various other new features. I’m guessing this dates to around 1952 since t

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Matt:

Thanks for posting the clips–especially the Crookton Cutoff out of Williams. I’ve always been fascinated by the Santa Fe line changes in Northern Arizona, and this was a good one.

Thanks again.

Tom [:D]

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Did you notice that the first film was produced by Morrison-Knudsen?

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Yep. They did the construction of the line relocation. The film may have been shown to potential clients of MK.

I remember seeing a similar film by MK for a project they did for the Rio Grande or maybe it was Southern Pacific (can’t remember fully as it has been several years since I’ve seen it). Knowing that MK did the Crookton relocation, I wondered if they did a film on it. Thanks to YouTube, and the poster of the video, I found out they did.